


The Good Fight

by EmetoOmo



Series: Jamie/Vincent (OCs) [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, M/M, Original Characters - Freeform, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-08-29 03:17:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16736076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmetoOmo/pseuds/EmetoOmo
Summary: Jamie's been deployed, leaving Vincent to start their senior year of college without him. They struggle with the strain long distance and stress puts on a budding relationship, and the weight of the war.





	1. Deployment

For all intents and purposes, Vincent hadn’t been worried when Jamie left for his deployment. The media barely even covered the war in Afghanistan anymore, and with Jamie just being a techie in the Reserves, Vincent had fully convinced himself that he likely wouldn’t even see the front lines. He’d probably be holed up at a base somewhere, dealing with dust storms and dropped wifi as the bane of his deployment, and at the end of his time get to come back to him no worse for wear.

Jamie had, in all honesty, been content to let him think that. Part of him had believed it himself. Granted, what he did was a little more involved than that, but it wasn’t much of what he could talk about. Part of the reason for his late deployment _was because it was something too sensitive to talk about_. Even if he had explained plainly that he’d be deciphering satellite images for the most part, it sounded boring enough to the layman to pacify any worry that he’d see any sort of action.

The weeks leading up to his deployment had been filled with more than a little arguing with the powers that be. Jamie had no family nearby, and with he and Vincent not being married, it wasn’t easy to get him set up as a beneficiary for all his accounts. Jamie didn’t want to leave him hanging on his half of the rent while he was gone, but with his parents and sister out in California, it left them unable to really deal with it either.

Truthfully, for all the trouble it was, it was a welcome distraction for him. Six months was nothing to the regular servicemen and women who often saw yearlong deployments, some of the more valuable ones only getting a small reprieve before being sent back out, but for Jamie…it seemed like it would be an eternity. He and Vincent had just gotten settled into the groove of their new relationship, everything still had that shine of excitement and exploration to it…and here he was having to put it on pause to leave him for six months.

“If you find someone while I’m gone that you want to kick it with, dude. Don’t think I’ll get twisted over it,” Jamie had said on the way to the airport.

Vincent chuckled, shaking his head. “You really think I’ma find someone that looks like you do in that uniform? Get out of here with that shit.”

“I’m serious. Six months is a long time. I don’t want you to think you just have to hang out alone in the apartment waiting on my phone call. Fifteen minutes a night isn’t much, and well, sometimes it’s not guaranteed.”

“Dude, I’ll be fine. Really. I’ll miss you, for sure. It’ll suck. But it’s six months, and I’ve got fall semester coming. Football is starting back up. It’ll keep me busy for a while, at least passing time til I can see you again.” Vincent’s hand slid to hold Jamie’s. “You just try not to get too bored over there.”

Jamie mustered a smile for him, though his stomach churned. “I’ll do my best.”

 

\---

 

For the first couple months, Jamie was able to keep up with their nightly chats. Vincent worked on his homework while they chatted, always getting distracted and giving Jamie his full attention. Especially on those special nights one a week when their call got to be a Skype call. The internet was a little spotty, and they only had about 15 minutes per time, but seeing one another’s smiling face seemed to be enough to sustain them.

By the third month, between Vincent’s football practices and Jamie’s duties, Skype calls were nonexistent and phone calls had been exchanged with bedtime or morning texts of ‘I love you, be safe.’ The days were long, the nights lonely, and it wore on them both. More than once, Jamie had skipped sending a good morning greeting, his phone back at the barracks, leaving Vincent to spend his morning and afternoon blowing up his phone asking if he was okay, and to please message him as soon as he could. When soon as he could fell during a game or late night practice, Jamie took his silence for irritation, and the it would spark a few days of irritated texts and then silence between them.

Things leveled out more for month four and five, and while it was maybe two or three Skype calls a month, and Jamie always looked exhausted and maybe a little thinner, he _always_ lit up to see Vincent’s face, and it was a glow that would carry him through the rest of his night.

So, it was entirely unexpected that sixth month when Vincent’s phone started ringing in the middle of his psych exam. There was little more he could do other than silence it and hand it to the professor with a quiet apology, explaining his boyfriend was on deployment so the times were different there. It was only that which kept him from getting his exam thrown away. His heart hammered as he rushed to finish, catching glimpses of his screen lighting up on the professor’s desk, becoming worried with the influx of calls. Jamie was supposed to be home at the end of the week, maybe he was coming home earlier than expected?

He couldn’t hand his paper over fast enough, snatching his phone up and darting out the door before he could exchange any further words with his instructor. _“Twelve missed calls?”_ He thought to himself as he thumbed through the notifications. Twelve missed calls, and one text.

His stomach dropped.

_“Change of plans. They’re extending my deployment.”_


	2. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been six months longer than intended, but Jamie has finally returned home...just to find Vincent drunk and passed out in his bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer for graphic depictions of vomiting ahead, and hints of alcohol abuse.

The sound of thunder masked the scrape of metal as the lock flicked at the front door. It was nearly three am when a sleep-deprived Jamie quietly made his way into the apartment, praying he didn’t wake Vincent. It’d been six months since they’d last spoken, a year since Vincent had dropped him off at the airport. A lot had happened, a lot had changed, and for the most part Jamie just wanted to shower and sleep, not at all wanting to tackle it tonight.

Unfortunately, luck had other ideas for him.

Flipping the light on in his room, a very disheveled Vincent stirred within his sheets, holding one of his hoodies close. The jock looked a mess. It was hard to say when he had last shaven, though Jamie had never seen him with so much scruff on his cheeks. His normally short blonde hair had grown out at least four or five inches and didn’t look like he had been maintaining it. Dark bags rested beneath his eyes, and immediately Jamie felt a pang of guilt.

Vincent hadn’t been sleeping…

Quietly, he dropped his bag at the door, standing there to kick off his boots as well. Stocking feet slid a bit easier over the floorboards as he started toward his dresser. One determined little creek was all it took to have Vincent shooting upright in bed, bleary eyed and disheveled.

“Hey…hey, it’s just me,” Jamie said, trying to ignore the sound of his own pulse throbbing in his ears from Vincent’s quick movement. “I’m…I’m home.”

“Jamie?”

Jamie canted his head a little, seeing  _actual_  confusion on his lover’s face as his bloodshot gaze attempted to focus on him. “It’s me. Are you…drunk?”

Vincent practically tumbling onto his head to get out of the bed, trapped by blankets was enough to answer that question, and Jamie stooped to assist him. “Easy. Easy. Good God, Vince, I’m sorry—”

The older boy didn’t have words, throwing his arms around Jamie as he sobbed into his camos. He smelled like sweat, and sand, and shitty airport cologne, but those strong corded arms around him felt like  _home_. All the same, the tears wouldn’t stop coming and soon…there was enough of them going around that he didn’t know where his ended and Jamie’s began.

“You…didn’t call…I was…I thought you—”

“I know, I’m sorry.” Jamie said, rocking him as he clutched him to his chest. “We went dark…I…things happened, I had no way to contact you.” Jamie opened his eyes, focusing on the sight of his disheveled sheets on the floor, the sound of Vincent’s crying, anything to anchor him away from the memories of those six  _dark_  months.

Vincent hiccupped through his sobs, unable to calm down. It had been so long, and between the lack of sleep, the worry, the depression, and the drinking…he was a complete mess. “Shhh, Vince, it’s alright. God, I am so sorry. I’m so…so sorry,” Jamie whispered.

The next hiccup came without the warning of the following warmth that began to seep into his BDUs. If it weren’t for the putrid smell of alcohol and bile that assaulted his nose, Jamie might not have noticed the small, stealthy amount of vomit that Vincent had brought up all over him. “Shit!” He breathed, already annoyed at the way his body thrummed a moment before his caretaker instincts overrode it and he sprung into action.

Sweeping Vincent into his arms, he started back out toward the bathroom, his still-drunk lover’s head bobbing with each movement. He belched, wet and ominous before a gurgling wretch ejected harshly through his lips, pure brown liquid. His face turned red from the force of it, the angle he was at causing it to spray against Jamie’s neck and face, before dribbling down both their fronts.

Vincent coughed, choking before he painfully projectile vomited on their way past the bathroom door. Jamie nearly slipped, getting the lights on and helping Vincent get in front of the toilet. It wasn’t until he released him and Vincent nearly fell again that he realized how truly deep in the drink his lover had been. “M…sorry, ‘M… _hrrrruuulllk!!!!!!!!!_ ” Vincent slurred, interrupted as more alcohol reappeared to mingle with the water below as Jamie held him up.

“Shh, just get it up. Let me worry about the rest,” Jamie whispered, just getting a good look at the bathroom. Dirty towels and clothes littered the corner and half the floor in front of the tub. There were specs and stains of old vomit beside the toilet, and inwardly the soldier had to wonder just how often Vincent was spending his nights like this…and for how long.  
  
The vomit didn’t seem like it would ever stop, before the jock was left dry heaving little more than pink-tinged spittle from the stress on his throat. His cheeks were red as he laid his face against the seat, gasping between unproductive wretches, and Jamie could just make out the hints of blood vessels popped from the strain, making his pale blue eyes seem rather vivid in comparison. The smell of alcohol, urine, and vomit was thick in the bathroom, but with the disarray it was in, Jamie wasn’t entirely sure if it was fresh or just left over.

It wasn’t until he moved out from behind him and saw the dampness on his clothes that he realized it was at least mostly fresh. “We need to get you into the bath and back to bed. We can talk once you’ve rested.” Jamie carefully set Vincent back to lean against the tub, grabbing the waist basket to hand him, only to find it full and sighed. “If you need to be sick…” He looked around before grabbing a dirty towel to drop in his lap. “Just…be sick on that. I’m going to dump this out so you’ll have something clean to be sick in if needed.”

He started to move, only to have a weak hand grip at his ankle. “Don’t leave…”

Vincent’s voice was raw and quiet, but there was no mistaking that desperation in there. Looking back, Jamie frowned and set the small plastic trash can aside while be brushed Vincent’s cheek. “I’m never leaving again. You can count on that.”


End file.
